She seemed to recover herself. Placing both hands on her desktop, she said more mildly, “I’m sorry for the tirade. But I want you to understand why I’m not particularly interested in helping the people of Earth.”
Dan replied, “Then how about helping the people of Selene?”
Her chin went up a notch. “What do you mean?”
“A working fusion drive can make it economical to mine hydrates from the carbonaceous asteroids. Even scoop water vapor from comets.”
She thought about that for a moment. Then, “Or even scoop fusion fuels from Jupiter, I imagine.”
Dan stared at her. Twelve lords a-leaping, I hadn’t even thought of that. Jupiter’s atmosphere must be loaded with hydrogen and helium isotopes.
Cardenas smiled slightly. “I presume you could make a considerable fortune from all this.”
“I’ve offered to do it at cost.”
Her brows rose. “At cost?”
He hesitated, then admitted, “I want to help the people of Earth. There’s ten billion of them, less the millions who’ve already been killed in the floods and epidemics and famines. They’re not all bad guys.”
Cardenas looked away from him for a moment, then admitted, “No, I suppose they’re not.”
“Your grandchildren are down there.”
“That’s a low blow, Mr. Randolph.”
“Dan.”
“It’s still a low blow, and you know it.”
He smiled at her. “I’m not above a rabbit punch or two if it’ll get the job done.”
She did not smile back. But she said, “I’ll spin this Mars work off to a couple of my students. It’s mostly routine now, anyway. I’ll be back in Selene within the week.”
“Thanks. You’re doing the right thing,” Dan said.
“I’m not as sure of that as you are.”
He got up from his chair. “I guess we’ll just have to see where it all leads.”
“Yes, we will,” she agreed.
Dan shook hands with her again and then left her office. Don’t linger once you get what you want. Never give the other side the chance to reconsider. He had Cardenas’s agreement, no matter that it was reluctant.
Okay, I’ve got the team I need. Duncan and his crew can stay Earth-side. Cardenas will direct the construction job.
Now to confront Humphries.
SELENE
And he’s madder’n hell,” Pancho finished. Dan nodded somberly as they rode an electric cart through the tunnel from the spaceport to Selene proper. Pancho had been at the spaceport to meet him on his return flight from Nueva Venezuela, looking worried, almost frightened about Humphries. “I guess I’d be ticked off, too,” he said, “if our positions were reversed.”
The two of them were alone in the cart. Dan had deliberately waited until the four other passengers of the transfer ship had gone off toward the city. Then he and Pancho had clambered aboard the next cart. The automated vehicles ran like clockwork along the long, straight tunnel. “What do you want to do?” Pancho asked. Dan grinned at her. “I’ll call him and arrange a meeting.”
“At the O. K. Corral?”
“No,” he said, laughing. “Nothing so grim. It’s time he and I talked about structuring a deal together.”
Frowning, Pancho asked, “Do you really need him now? I mean with the nanotech and all? Can’t you run this show yourself and keep him out of it?”
“I don’t think that would be the smart thing to do,” Dan replied. “After all, he did start me off on this fusion business. If I tried to cut him out altogether he’d have a legitimate gripe.”
“That’s what he expects you to do.”
Dan watched the play of shadows over her face as the cart glided silently along the tunnel. Light and shadow, light and shadow, like watching a speeded-up video of the Sun going across the sky.
“I don’t play the game the same way he does,” he said at last. “And I don’t want this project tied up by lawyers for the next ninety-nine years.” Pancho grunted with distaste. “Lawyers.”
“Humphries brought the fusion project to me because he wants to get into Astro. I know how he works. He figures that he’ll finance the fusion work in exchange for a bloc of Astro’s stock. Then he’ll finagle some more stock, put a couple of his clones on my board of directors, and sooner or later toss me out of my own company.”