“For the love of mercy, Lars,” he protested.
“Mercy?” Fuchs snapped. “Did they show mercy to Niles Ripley? Did they show mercy to any of the people in the ships they destroyed? This is a war, Boyd, and in a war there is no mercy.”
The asteroid looked immense in the bridge’s main display screen, a massive dark sphere, pitted with numberless craters. Spreading across one of the biggest of the craters, Fuchs saw, was a tangle of buildings and construction equipment. Scorch marks showed where shuttlecraft had landed and taken off again.
“Three ships in orbit,” Fuchs noted, eyes narrowing.
“Might be more on the other side, too,” said Nielson.
“They’ll all be armed.”
“I imagine so.” Nielson looked distinctly uncomfortable. “We could all get killed.”
Fuchs nodded, as if he had made a final calculation and was satisfied with the result.
To Nodon, sitting in the pilot’s chair, Fuchs said, “Proceed as planned.”
Turning to Nielson, “You should ask them for orbital parameters.”
Nielsen’s left cheek ticked once. “Lars, you don’t have to do this. You can get away, go back to your own ship, and no harm done.”
Fuchs glowered at him. “You don’t understand, do you? I want to do harm.”
Standing on the rim of the unnamed crater in his dustcaked spacesuit, Nguyan Ngai Giap surveyed the construction work with some satisfaction. Half a dozen long, arched habitat modules were in place. Front loaders were covering them with dirt to protect them against radiation and micrometeor hits. They would be ready for occupation on time, and he had already reported back to HSS headquarters at Selene that the troops could be sent on their way. The repair facilities were almost finished, as well. All was proceeding as planned.
“Sir, we have an emergency,” said a woman’s voice in his helmet earphones.
“An emergency?”
“An ore freighter, the Durant, is asking permission to take up orbit. It needs repairs.”
“Durant? Is this an HSS vessel?” Giap demanded.
“Yes, sir. An ore freighter. They say they were attacked by Fuchs’s ship.”
“Give them permission to establish orbit. Alert the other ships up there.”
“Yes, sir.”
Only after he had turned his attention back to the construction work did Giap wonder how Durant knew of this facility. HSS vessel or not, this base on Vesta was supposed to be a secret.
“Freighter approaching,” called the crewman on watch in Shanidar’s bridge.
Dorik Harbin hardly paid any attention. After the fruitless attempt to decoy Fuchs with the fake ore freighter, he had returned to the repaired and refurbished Shanidar, waiting for him in a parking orbit around Vesta. As soon as refueling was completed, Harbin could resume his hunt for Lars Fuchs. Shanidar’s crew had been disappointed that they had put in at Vesta instead of Ceres, where they could have spent their waiting time at the asteroid’s pub or brothel. Let them grumble, Harbin said to himself. The sooner we get Fuchs the sooner all of us can leave the Belt for good.
He thought of Diane Verwoerd. No woman had ever gained a hold on his emotions, but Diane was unlike anyone he had ever known before. He had had sex with many women, but Diane was far more than a bedmate. Intelligent, understanding, and as sharply driven to get ahead in this world as Harbin was himself. She knew more about the intrigues and intricacies of the corporate world than Harbin had ever guessed at. She would be a fine partner in life, a woman who could stand beside him, take her share of the burden and then some. And the sex was good, fantastic, better than any drug.
Do I love her? Harbin asked himself. He did not understand what love truly was. Yet he knew that he wanted Diane for himself, she was his key to a better world, she could raise him above this endless circle of mercenary killing that was his life.
He also knew that he would never have her until he found this elusive madman Fuchs and killed him.
“She’s carrying a heavy load of ores,” the crewman noticed.
Harbin turned his attention to the approaching ore freighter in the display screen on his bridge. Damaged in a fight with Fuchs, her captain had said. But he could see no signs of damage. Maybe they’re hidden by that pile of rocks she’s carrying, he thought. More likely the frightened rabbit raced away from the first sign of trouble and scurried here for protection.