COMMAND SHIP ANTARES
Reid Gormley was a career soldier. He had served with the International Peacekeeping Force in Asia and Africa and had commanded the brilliant strike that had wiped out the paramilitary forces of the Latin American drug cartel. He was widely known in military circles as an able commander: a tough, demanding bantam cock who instilled a sense of pride and invincibility in his troops. He was also vain, cautious, and unwilling to move until he was certain he had an overwhelming superiority of force on his side.
He had come out of retirement to accept a commission with Astro Corporation. Fighting in space was new to him, but then it was new to every commander that the big corporations were hiring. The only experienced space fighters were a handful of mercenaries and renegades like Lars Fuchs. Like most of the other experienced officers who were suddenly finding new careers for themselves, Gormley was certain that a well-motivated, well-trained and well-equipped force could beat mercenaries, who were fighting only for money. As for lone renegades, well, they would be rounded up and dealt with in due time.
It took him nearly six months to bring his force up to the peak of efficiency that he demanded. Like himself, most of the men and women in this Astro Corporation task force were either retired military or younger types who had taken a leave of absence from their regular duties to take a crack at the better pay and more exciting duty offered by the Asteroid War.
Gormley stressed to his troops that while the HSS people were mercenaries, fighting for nothing more than money, they themselves were serving in the best traditions of the military, going into battle to keep the Asteroid Belt free from the dictatorship of one corporation, fighting to save the miners and prospectors scattered through the Belt from virtual slavery. It never occurred to him that Humphries’s mercenaries could say the same thing about him and his troops, with the same degree of truth.
Now he led a force of fourteen ships, armed with high-power lasers and armored with rocky debris crushed from asteroidal stone. His mission was to clear HSS ships from the inner Belt, and then take up a position near Vesta to begin the blockade and eventual strangulation of the major Humphries base.
He had no idea that he was sailing into a trap.
Nobuhiko Yamagata noted that even though it was high summer in Japan, here at the Roof of the World the monastery was still cold, its stone walls icy to the touch of his fingertips. He looked out through the room’s only window and consoled himself that at least the Himalayas were still snowcapped. The greenhouse warming had not yet melted them bare.
His father entered the small chamber so silently that when he said, “Hello, son,” Nobu nearly hopped off his feet.
Turning, Nobu saw that although his father was smiling, the old man did not look truly pleased. Saito wore his usual kimono. His round face seemed even more youthful than the last time Nobu had visited. Is Father taking youth treatments? Nobuhiko asked himself. He dared not ask aloud.
Kneeling on the mat nearer the window, Saito said, “I just learned that one of our loyal agents was assassinated, together with his wife and children.”
Nobu blinked with surprised confusion as he knelt beside his father.
“Assassinated?”
“The man who was assigned to make certain that Pancho Lane was not killed in the cable car incident,” Saito explained curtly.
“That was months ago.”
“His wife and children?” Saito demanded.
Kneading his thighs nervously, Nobu said, “Our security people felt it was necessary. To make certain there would be no possibility of Astro Corporation learning that we caused the accident.”
“He was a loyal employee.”
“I did not approve the move, Father. I didn’t even know about it until after the fact.”
Saito gave a low, growling grunt.
“The incident achieved its purpose,” Nobu said, trying to get his father’s approval. “It started the chain of events that has led to out-and-out war between Astro and Humphries Space Systems.”
Saito nodded, although his displeased expression did not change.