What can I do about it?
Warn Dan, she answered her own question. Warn him now.
But how? She wondered. I can’t just pick up a phone and put a call through to him. They’re out past the orbit of Mars by now.
I’ve got to get to someone in the Astro office. Someone who can put me through to Dan. Maybe that big Australian bodyguard of his. What’s his name? George something.
Martin Humphries could not sleep, despite the exertions he’d been through with the raven-haired woman lying beside him. Nominally an environmentalist on the consulting staff of Humphries Trust, the young woman’s favored environment seemed to be a bedroom with plenty of furniture to play on, as far as Humphries could determine.
She was sleeping peacefully. He was wide awake.
Dr. Cardenas. Humphries was worried about her. Even the lure of seeing her grandchildren wasn’t going to outweigh her overdeveloped sense of honor, he thought. She wants to warn Randolph; she’s probably figured out that I want the sonofabitch dead.
He sat up in the bed and glanced at the woman sleeping beside him. Slowly, carefully, he pulled the silk sheet down from her shoulders. Even with no lights in the room except the green glow from the digital clock, he could see that her body was smooth, flawless, perfectly proportioned. Too bad she’s heading back to Earth in a few days.
Cardenas, he reminded himself sternly.
She’s going to try to warn Randolph, he felt certain. Maybe that’s a good thing. If Randolph turns back now, Amanda will come back with him. With him. She won’t be coming back to me. She doesn’t want me, that’s why she ran off with him. If Cardenas warns them, they’ll come back here together to gloat at me.
He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to drive out the mental images of Randolph and Amanda together. I’ve got to think this through carefully. Logically.
For Cardenas to warn Randolph she’ll have to get somebody here in Selene to set up the message for her. She’ll probably go to Astro; that’s where Randolph’s people are. And if she asks them to let her put through a call to Randolph they’ll ask her why. Sooner or later she’ll tell them why: Martin Humphries has bugged the Starpower ship with nanomachines. And then they’ll know all about it.
Conclusion: For my own protection, I’ve got to stop her from talking to anyone at Astro. I’ve got to stop her from even trying to warn Randolph. I’ve got to stop her. Period.
When Dan awoke from his troubled sleep the solar storm had passed. Pancho was in the wardroom when he shambled in, bleary-eyed.
“Top o’ the mornin’, boss,” she said cheerily, hefting a mug of steaming coffee.
“How’s the weather out there?” Dan asked, heading for the juice dispenser.
“Clear and calm, except for a few rocks we should be passin’ by this afternoon.”
That made Dan smile. “We’re at the Belt.”
“Will be, by sixteen hundred hours. Right on shedyule, as Mandy would say.”
“Good. Great. Where’s Fuchs? We’ve got to make some course adjustments.”
Ten minutes later the four of them were seated around the table in the wardroom.
“I want to get a metallic nugget first,” Dan said.
Fuchs lifted his heavy shoulders slightly. “The metallic bodies are more heavily concentrated towards the outer area of the Belt.”
“So we go to the outer edge of the Belt,” Dan replied, “and search for a lump of iron. We can pick up the stony and carbonaceous rocks on the way back.”
“We’ll have to go more than four astronomical units, then,” Amanda pointed out. “No one’s gone that far before.”
Dan said, “We’ve got the supplies for it. And the fuel. Everything’s running all right, isn’t it?”
“No major problems,” said Pancho.
His brows rising, Dan asked, “What are the minor problems?”
She grinned at him. “The coffee’s pretty awful. A couple of li’l maintenance chores to do. You know, a cranky pump, one of the fuel cells is discharging when it shouldn’t. Nigglin’ stuff. Mandy and I are takin’ care of it.”
Amanda nodded. Dan looked from her back to Pancho. Neither woman seemed worried. Well, he thought, if the pilots aren’t worried, no reason for me to sweat.