Hurrying back to the makeshift barricade at the top of the main staircase, Fuchs could smell smoke wafting up from the rear stairs.
“FIRE!” said a synthesized voice, calm and flat but heavily amplified. “FIRE IN THE REAR STAIRWELL.”
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Sanja hissed in his ear.
“No!” Fuchs snapped. “Not till we get Humphries.”
Amarjagal crawled to them. “More guards down there,” she said. “They will charge up the stairs.”
From the corner of his eye Fuchs could see the flickering light of the flames in the rear stairwell. They can’t attack us from that direction, he thought. Then he realized, And we can’t retreat that way, either.
Laser bolts sizzled against the upturned table and scorched the wall behind them.
“Here they come!”
Even in the shadowy light Fuchs could see a team of guards charging up the stairs, firing their handguns as others down in the entryway also fired up at them.
Fuchs rolled to one side of the table, where his crew had laid a heavy marble bust from one of the tables down the hall. He noticed that one of the laser blasts had ignited a painting on the wall behind them. Grunting with the effort, he lifted the bust with both hands, raised it above the edge of the upturned table, and hurled it down the stairs. It bounced down the steps, scattering the approaching guards like a bowling ball. Sanja and Amargjagal fired at them. Fuchs heard screams of pain.
“We must get out of here,” Amarjagal said flatly. There was no panic in her voice, not even fear. It was simply a statement of fact.
And Fuchs knew she was right. But they were surrounded, trapped. And Humphries was untouched.
SHINING MOUNTAIN BASE
Been a long time since I drove a tractor, Pancho said to herself as she puttered up the ramp toward the base’s topmost level. They haven’t changed much since my astronaut days, she thought. Haven’t improved them.
The fact that the Nairobi base was so big was an advantage to her. They’re scurrying all over the place looking for me; got a lot of territory to search. I’ll be in good shape until those three blind mice down there start talking.
The tractor reached the top of the ramp and Pancho steered past a knot of blue-coveralled construction workers, heading for a quiet, empty spot along the base of the dome. She figured it would take the better part of half an hour to get the laser going and cut a reasonably sized hole in the dome’s metal wall. Better get into the softsuit before then, she told herself. Unless you want to breathe vacuum.
Nobuhiko felt sorry for Daniel Tsavo. The man sat in a little folding chair in the base’s infirmary, hunched almost into a fetal position, his fists balled up on his lap, his unseeing eyes aimed at the floor. It must be terrible to be blind, Nobu thought, even if it’s only temporary.
A pair of doctors and three nurses were finishing their ministrations, taping a bandage across Tsavo’s eyes while the man kept up a low angry mumble about what Pancho had done to him.
Keeping his face impassive as he listened to Tsavo’s muttered story, Nobu couldn’t help feeling some admiration for Pancho. She walked into the lion’s den knowingly, he realized. She came here to learn what Nairobi is doing. I wonder if she understands now that Nairobi is a tool of Yamagata Corporation? And if she does, what should I do about it?
I should call my father, Nobuhiko thought. But not here. Not now. Not in front of these aliens. Wait. Have patience. You’ve come all the way to the Moon, be patient enough to wait until they capture Pancho. Then we’ll find out how much she knows. Once we determine that, it will be time to decide what to do with her.
Pancho was thinking of Yamagata as she toted the laser from the back of the minitractor to the base of the dome’s curving metal wall. This topmost level of the base was quieter than the lower levels. Construction here was nearly complete, except for small groups scattered across the dome’s floor, painting and setting up partitions. There were guards at all the airlocks, though, and more guards stationed along the lockers where space suits were stored.