“A group of us have decided to split,” Naarmegen said, directing himself at Keene. “Your name is one that was voted to be invited.”
“Split? Where to?”
“Anywhere. Just out. We’re not prepared to play ball or live like this. There’s no way they can seal this part out here. We arrange to leave a Scout here at the pad, stock it with gear and supplies, and then move out to it in small groups early in the evening. Hell, Lan, there isn’t anyone out here to stop us. We take off at night, in the opposite direction from the base. By daybreak we’ll be miles gone.”
“When?”
“We haven’t fixed it yet. When we’ve got the Scout fitted out. Probably tomorrow or the night after.”
“How many?”
“A dozen so far.”
“Big load for a Scout.”
“This is Earth, not some moon without an atmosphere. We can put some on the trailer. Zeigler doesn’t have the manpower to come after us.”
“He can still send out probes and recce drones. They’ll find you in an hour.”
“And what would they do? They’re not armed. And even if they were, what would be the point?”
“Who knows with someone like Zeigler? Maybe just to demonstrate who’s in charge, and that you don’t step out of line.”
“That’s a risk we’ll take,” Naarmegen said.
Keene eyed him dubiously. The practicalities were a secondary issue, he could see. It was a gesture that Naarmegen needed to make. He wasn’t asking for Keene’s endorsement—just a simple yes or no as to whether he wanted to be included.
“I wish you luck, Pieter, but I don’t think it’s the way,” he said. “I need to be here.”
“To do what?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“So what is the way, Lan?” Adreya put in.
Keene made a shrug that said there was no glib, ready answer. “You observe, you organize, you prepare . . . and wait for your opportunity.”
“And if one doesn’t happen?” Naarmegen asked.
“Then you find a way of making one happen.”
* * *
In the Communications Room of the Trojan, Captain Walsh viewed a decoded message from Grasse’s assistant on the Eskimo that the consignment of boosters had been retrieved successfully, and they were being fitted to the vessel on schedule. There was also news from Zeigler that the situation at Serengeti was stable and under control after some minor reactions. There was still no indication of why Zeigler had moved the date forward from that originally planned.
* * *
Kurt Zeigler had made a name for himself around Europe in the circles connected with arranging finances for international sales of sophisticated weapons systems. The deals that he specialized in were frequently engineered to bypass the laws and technology-transfer regulations of the governments involved, sometimes making expedient use of third parties; at others, by contriving ingenious shell games involving holding companies and transfer agencies to confound audit trails of exactly who was being paid by whom and for what; and on occasions, resorting to outright falsification of documents describing the equipment involved or its intended purpose.
Larger-scale conflicts deserving of being called “wars” had become a rarity by the time of pre-Athena Earth, not so much as a result of any marked advance in the direction of humanitarian restraint on the part of the world’s governing eminences, but more because military solutions to capturing markets essential for continuing capital expansion and denying them to non-approved economic systems were becoming too expensive and unpopular. However, ongoing tensions in various places between ethnic groups that had been inappropriately mixed or forcibly separated, and the reluctance of many local populations to appreciate the benefits of the global financial and economic order that was going to bring the Millennium, had kept business buoyant and profits respectable. Zeigler had graduated to the big league by buying out the interests of a pair of overly-trusting business partners at a discount when a negotiation was cooling, and then making a killing on a fast sale to a second buyer, whose existence he had been less than forthcoming about. That was when he came to the notice of Valcroix and his associates, and his rise to a position of influence in the international political-military scene quickly followed.