“You have video?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well let me see it,” he snapped.
The woman’s face was replaced by a slightly jittery video of Cardenas talking earnestly with Randolph’s body-guard, that big Australian.
“They went back to the show together?”
The woman’s face reappeared on the screen. “No, separately. He had another woman with him.”
Glancing at the digital clock on his desk, Humphries asked, “When does the show end?”
“I don’t know.”
Stupid cow, he fumed silently. Aloud, he commanded, “Stay with her. I’m going to send a couple of men to pick her up. Keep your phone on and they’ll home in on the signal. That way, even if they don’t get there before the show’s over they can find you—and her.”
“It is not allowed to keep the phone on during the performance,” the woman replied.
“I don’t care what’s allowed and what isn’t! Keep your phone on and stay with Dr. Cardenas or I’ll have you shipped back to Moldavia!”
Her eyes widened with sudden fear. “Yes, sir,” she said. Sullenly.
“How’s the leak?” Dan asked.
He’d been fidgeting around in the wardroom for hours, trying not to pop into the bridge and bother the pilots. But a leak in the superconductor’s coolant scared Dan. Without the superconductor they could be fried by the next solar storm.
So when Amanda left the bridge, Dan asked about the leak.
She looked surprised at his question. “Leak?”
“In the coolant line.”
“Oh, that. It’s nothing much. Pancho will go EVA after turnaround and patch it.”
“Just Pancho?” Dan asked. “By herself?”
“It’s only a tiny leak,” Amanda said lightly. “Pancho decided it won’t need both of us out there.”
Dan nodded and got up from his chair. “Think I’ll go aft and see what Fuchs is doing.” If I just sit here I’ll turn myself into a nervous wreck, he added silently.
Fuchs was back in the sensor bay, humming tunelessly to himself as he bent over a worktable strewn with parts from an infrared scanner.
“Did it break down?” Dan asked.
Fuchs looked up at him, a pleased smile on his broad face. “No, no,” he said. “I decided to upgrade its sensitivity so we could get better data at long range.”
“We’re going to turn around soon. You’ll have to get all these loose parts stowed away safely or they’ll slide off the table.”
“Oh, I should be finished by then.”
“Really?”
With a glance that was part surprise at having his word questioned, and part pride in his abilities, Fuchs said, “Of course.”
He bent over his work again, stubby thick fingers handling the delicate parts with the precision of a well-trained mechanic. Dan watched him for a while, then quietly left the man to himself. As he started back to his privacy cubicle, he saw Amanda heading along the narrow passage toward him.
“Going to help Pancho suit up?” he asked. “I can —”
“Oh, there’s plenty of time for that,” Amanda said brightly. “I thought I’d pop in on Lars for a few minutes and help him get prepared for turnaround.”
Dan felt his brows inch upward. “Something going on between you two?” he asked.
She looked genuinely surprised. “Lars is a complete gentleman,” Amanda said with great dignity. “And even though you may not believe it, I know how to behave like a lady.”
She brushed past Dan, chin high, radiating disdain.
Dan grinned at her retreating back. Something’s going on, all right, even if Fuchs doesn’t know it yet.