She stepped between the beds and swiveled the phone console. “It’s me,” she said, sitting on the bed opposite the one Mandy lay upon.
“I heard that Randolph sent you up here,” Humphries said. “But I had to learn it from another source. I haven’t heard a peep from you in months.”
With a glance at Mandy, who was watching her with intense curiosity, Pancho replied guardedly. “Well, I’m here now.”
“Who answered the phone? You’re not alone, are you?”
“Nope, I’m here with Mandy Cunningham.”
“She’s an Astro employee too?”
“That’s right.”
Mandy was straining to see Humphries’s face, but Pancho kept the phone turned away from her.
“Well, I’ve got to talk to you. I’ve been paying you for information but so far I’ve gotten nothing from you but a big, fat silence.”
Pancho made a smile. “I’d love to see you, too. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
Humphries snapped, “All right, get down here right away.”
“You want me to come to dinner?” Pancho replied pleasantly.
“Dinner?” Humphries glanced at his wrist. “All right. In two hours.”
“Tonight?” Pancho cooed. “That’ll be just fine. I’ll see you at nineteen hundred. Okay?”
“Seven o’clock,” Humphries said. “Sharp.”
“I’ll be there.”
Pancho hung up the phone and said to Amanda, “I’ll use the shower first, Mandy. I’ve got a dinner date.”
She left Mandy standing by the bed, staring at her with wide-eyed astonishment.
Martin Humphries clicked his phone off and stretched back in his recliner. Maybe she’s smarter than I gave her credit for. She hasn’t gotten in touch with me before this because she doesn’t want to get caught. Okay, that’s reasonable. She’s being cautious. She’s been surrounded by Randolph’s people all the time. There’s even somebody in her quarters with her.
Humphries broke into a satisfied grin. Randolph’s making his people double up, to save money. He’s on the ropes, and he thinks I’m going to save him from bankruptcy.
He laughed aloud. “Me! The savior of Dan Randolph!”
He was still giggling when he put through his call to Nobuhiko Yamagata.
The head of Yamagata Industries was in his Tokyo office, from the looks of it. Humphries could see through the window behind Yamagata several construction cranes and the spidery steelwork of new towers going up. Rebuilding from the last earthquake. They’d better build stronger, he thought grimly. A lot stronger.
“Mr. Yamagata,” Humphries said, nodding his head once in imitation of a polite bow. “It’s good of you to take the time to talk with me.”
He thought about putting Yamagata’s image on the wallscreen, but that would make the Japanese look too big. He preferred the smaller desktop screen.
“Mr. Humphries,” said Nobo, nearly three seconds later, barely dipping his chin. “It is always a pleasure to converse with you.”
Blasted bullshit, Humphries thought. You can’t come right out and say what you want with these Japs. You have to make polite fucking conversation for half an hour before you can get down to business.
To his surprise, though, Yamagata said, “Dan Randolph has asked me to invest in a new venture.”
“Let me guess,” Humphries said. “He wants to build a fusion rocket system.”
Again the wait for the microwaves to reach Tokyo and return. “Yes, to go out to the Asteroid Belt and begin developing the resources there.”
“And what will your answer be?”
Once Yamagata heard Humphries’s question, his normally impassive face showed a tic of annoyance.
“I will be forced to tell him that Yamagata Industries is fully committed to rebuilding the cities that were damaged so heavily by the tsunamis and earthquakes. We have no funds to spare on space developments.”
“Good,” said Humphries.
Yamagata seemed to freeze into stone. At last he murmured, “It will be as we agreed.”
“You’d like to help him, wouldn’t you?”
The seconds stretched. At last Yamagata said, “He is an old friend.”
“You two were competitors at one time.”
“Yamagata Industries no longer has any operations in space,” the Japanese said slowly. “All of our energies are devoted to terrestrial developments.”
“So I understand.”
“But I agree with Dan. The resources from space can be of vital importance to our rebuilding efforts.”