Instead of sitting, though, he gripped the back of the chair and said, “I have an announcement to make.”
They all looked up at him. Even Amanda.
“The one sticking point in our discussion today has been the one-man guerilla war of Lars Fuchs.”
Dieterling and several others nodded.
“That problem has been resolved,” Humphries said, looking squarely at Amanda. For an instant she looked startled, frightened, but she recovered quickly and looked squarely into his eyes.
“Lars Fuchs is in custody. He’s aboard one of my ships and heading back to Ceres. I presume he’ll stand trial there for piracy and murder.”
Absolute silence fell across the conference table. Then Amanda slowly got up from her chair.
“Excuse me, please,” she said. “I must try to contact my husband.” She turned and headed for the door.
Pancho started to get out of her chair, but thought better of it and sat down again. “Okay, then,” she said, as Amanda left the conference room. “We got nothin’ in the way of making an agreement we can all live with.”
Humphries nodded, but he was thinking, There’s nothing in our way except Fuchs. But he’s not going to interfere with my plans any more. He’s not going to live much longer.
CHAPTER 54
“Will you release my crew once we reach Ceres?” Fuchs asked dully, mechanically.
Harbin replied, “That’s not up to me. That decision will be made—”
“By Martin Humphries, I know,” said Fuchs. Harbin studied the man. They were sitting at the small table in Shanidar’s galley, the only space in the ship where two people could converse in privacy. The hatch to the bridge was shut, by Harbin’s orders. Fuchs had looked utterly weary, dispirited, when he had first been brought aboard Shanidar. The look of defeat: Harbin had seen it before. A man stops fighting when he becomes convinced that no hope is left; victory begins when the enemy’s will to resist crumbles. But now, after a decent meal and a few hours to adjust his thinking to his new situation, Fuchs seemed to be regaining some spark of resistance.
He was a powerfully-built man, Harbin saw, despite his smallish stature. Like a badger, or—what was that American creature? A wolverine, he remembered. Small but deadly. Sharp teeth and utter fearlessness.
For a few moments Harbin contemplated what would happen if Fuchs tried to attack him. He had no doubt that he could handle the man, despite Fuchs’s apparent strength and potential ferocity. It would simplify everything if I had to kill him in self-defense, Harbin thought. Perhaps I can goad him into attacking me. His wife is apparently a sore point with him.
But then Harbin thought, to be convincing, I’d need at least one witness. That would be self-defeating. With another person in the room Fuchs probably would be smart enough to keep his hands to himself. If I tried to goad him, the witness would witness that, too.
Fuchs broke into his thoughts with, “Where is my crew? What have you done with them?”
“They’ve been placed aboard my other ships,” Harbin said. “No more than two to a ship. It’s safer that way; they won’t be tempted to try anything foolish.”
“I expect them to be treated properly.”
Harbin bobbed his head once. “As long as they behave themselves they will be fine.”
“And I want them released when we get to Ceres.”
Barely suppressing a smile at Fuchs’s growing impudence, Harbin said, “As I told you, that decision will be made by higher authority.”
“I take full responsibility for everything that’s happened.”
“Naturally.”
Fuchs lapsed into silence for a few moments. Then he said, “I suppose I’ll have to speak to Humphries directly, sooner or later.”
Harbin answered, “I doubt that he’ll want to speak to you.”
“About my crew—”
“Mr. Fuchs,” Harbin said, getting to his feet, “the fate of your crew is something that neither you nor I have the power to decide.”
Fuchs rose also, barely reaching Harbin’s shoulder.
“I think it would be best,” Harbin said, “if you remained in your privacy cubicle for the rest of the flight. We’ll be at Ceres in less than thirty-six hours. I’ll have your meals brought to you.”