Aub rested his elbows on his knees and chewed his lower lip while he appeared to turn the question over intently in his mind. “I think you might be wrong there,” he answered. “You’ve got to hand it to Sarah—she’s a genius. Thinking about it now, I’m not convinced that Zimmermann was all that involved. All he did was respond positively to the information that you sent him. As he saw it, the paper had come from ACRE, and so that was where he sent his response. He contacted the senior management there because it seemed the natural thing to do. He would have assumed that you would automatically be involved in whatever happened after that.” Aub looked up. “You know what, it wouldn’t surprise me if Zimmermann doesn’t know a thing about what’s been going on down here. I vote we give Sarah’s suggestion a try. Like she says, if he tells us to get lost, we’re no worse off.”
Clifford was already persuaded.
“Okay,” he agreed. “So how do we get in touch?” Aub shrugged and inclined his head in the direction of the Infonet terminal.
“We call him.”
“But it’s not that simple. From a domestic terminal you can only get extraterrestrial access through privileged codes. I don’t know the sequences.”
“I think I do,” Aub informed him. “I went through a phase of being a network freak once, you know . . . figuring out how to crack the system just for kicks. I got some data out of one of the lunar nodes a couple of times. I reckon I could do it again to get us a com channel. I don’t mind—the call will only trace back to your number if it gets intercepted.”
“Thanks a lot.” Clifford looked at Sarah, speechless.
“Don’t mention it,” Aub returned cheerfully. “Who’s going to do the talking? I guess you should. At least he knows your name; I wouldn’t imagine he’s even heard of me. So, what d’you say?”
“All right. But at this point I can’t even think straight, let alone talk sense. How about rustling up some breakfast? Then we’ll give it a try.”
“See,” Sarah said, pointedly. “You do need me.”
“I know I do. Who else would fix breakfast?”
“You’ll be sorry when I’ve found my millionaire and gone,” she said, rising from her chair and moving toward the door.
“Aw, you wouldn’t know what to do with one. They’re all fat, bald, and fifty. Fix the food.”
* * *
An hour later the three of them huddled around the Infonet terminal. Clifford and Sarah watched in fascinated silence while Aub played the keys swiftly and surely, pausing from time to time to study the codes that appeared intermittently on the screen. Three attempts had aborted so far, but Aub seemed to be just warming up.
“Aha! We’re into the ET trunk beam,” Aub finally announced. “From here on it oughta be smooth sailing. They must have altered the timeout settings. That’s what screwed it last time.”
“How much do these calls cost?” Sarah asked.
Aub chuckled and continued working. “To you, not a cent. The call’s routed via the message-switch complex at Berkeley. I got into there on a straight domestic call and rigged it to copy into the outgoing queue buffer. It’s easier to get through to ET from there because I know the access procedures. It’ll be logged as originating locally, so Berkeley pays the charge. You just collect the domestic tab to California.”
Clifford started to say something but the screen suddenly cleared and caused him to stop. A short header message appeared up near the top of the display.
“I think we’re through,” Aub informed them. “Over to you, Brad.” He moved the terminal round on its jointed supporting arm so that the screen faced Clifford. After a few seconds it came to life to reveal a man’s face.
“This is ISF at Joliot-Curie, Luna. Hello.”
“I’d like to speak to Professor Zimmermann, please.”
“Can I say who is calling?”
“Clifford. Dr. Bradley Clifford.”
“Of what organization, Dr. Clifford?”
“It’s a private call.”
“Private.” The man’s eyebrows raised slightly. Either he was suitably impressed or he was suspicious. “One moment please.” The screen blanked out for what seemed an eternity. Then the man reappeared. His face gave away nothing. “I’m sorry, Dr. Clifford, but Professor Zimmermann is unavailable at the moment. Can I pass on a message or get him to call back?”